Mind over matter: can meditation soothe my troubled insides?

Meditating Buddhist monks have been shown to have healthier gut microbiomes and more effective metabolisms than non-meditators. Could an app make mine happier?

Chew slowly, keep moving and eat 30 plants a week: 12 rules for gut health

What to eat, when, how to do it properly – and what to avoid. Experts lay out the food habits that will make a real difference to your health

A trip to my mother’s native Sweden helped me recapture my childhood

It was a nostalgic journey to rediscover my family roots, but it was also great fun and reminded me how much I missed this beautiful land

I started running during lockdown and still hate it – what counts is I do it anyway

It feels good to be fit but the gift of fitness isn’t to make exercise pleasurable, it’s to make impossible things achievable

What are the real signs of a healthy gut? A user’s guide

It’s a huge organ that gives us the energy to live, grow and repair. But how does it work – and how do you keep it healthy? Our science editor unravels its astonishing job

At long last, some recognition of the pain after childbirth. Why is women’s suffering so ignored?

Research shows opioid painkillers are unlikely to harm breastfed babies – but history shows how often women have had to sacrifice their own health, says historian Agnes Arnold-Foster

‘I kept begging for pain relief’: the women forced to give birth without gas and air

Some hospitals are suspending supplies of gas and air, after it was found to pose health risks to midwives. What can be done to ensure pregnant women still get the help they need?

Weight Watchers wins when our diets fail – it won’t change society’s broken thinking around food

The diet industry benefits if you become a customer for life: its profits soar with our failures, says psychotherapist, psychoanalyst and social critic Susie Orbach

A moment that changed me: after a shattering rape, yoga helped put me back together

Following the attack, I sensed danger everywhere. Yoga taught me to trust again – and I started to rebuild my life

The dream job: why it could be as elusive as your soulmate

Fewer than a third of us think we are in our dream job – and for a growing number, the idea that it even exists is fading fast